Time off

Employees have the right to reasonable time off to carry out certain public duties.

Key points

Employees must be allowed time off for jury service.

Employees can take reasonable time off for a number of public duties.

Employers can choose to pay for time off, but they don't have to.

Time off for public duties

An employee is entitled to a reasonable amount of time off if they are a:

magistrate (or justice of the peace)

local councillor

school governor

member of any statutory tribunal (for example employment tribunal)

member of the managing or governing body of an educational establishment

member of a health authority

member of a school council or board in Scotland

member of the General Teaching Councils for England and Wales

member of the Environment Agency or the Scottish Environment Protection agency

member of the prison independent monitoring boards (England or Wales) or a member of the prison visiting committees (Scotland)

member of Scottish Water or a Water Customer Consultation Panel

trade union member (for trade union duties).

Reasonable time off

Qualifying employees will be allowed reasonable time off to go to meetings, or carry out duties. The amount of time off must be agreed with employers before taking any time off. Employers will be allowed to refuse time off if it us unreasonable, however, the law does not specify a set amount of time.

What may be classed as reasonable will depend on:

what duties are carried out

the time that is needed to carry out the duties

the impact on the business

how much time the employee has already taken for public duties.

Who doesn't qualify for time off

Agency workers.

Members of the police service or armed forces.

Merchant seaman.

Civil servants, if their public duties are connected to political activities (restricted under their terms of employment).